Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Microsoft sometimes seems like the company people love to hate. But there is one Microsoft product the that has kept a loyal user base, so much so that the Redmondites have found it to be its most serious competitor of all the products in that field.

That’s the operating system known as Windows XP. It remains popular with “consumers,” meaning home users, and with corporations and small businesses and with office staff in institutions. Most ATMs run XP.

For goodness sakes, XP is 12 years old! When has an operating system been in use that long? If you have been using computers quite a while, you can remember MS DOS versions going up to 6 or 6.5, and Windows versions from 1.0 to 3.0 and 3.5 and then 95 and 98 and 2000 and ME—then XP. (I liked Vista Ultimate, and so did several other people.)

No other OS was supported as long as XP has been. MS has tried to wean users off XP before, but there has been so much piteous moaning that the company relented. This time it won’t. The company has been telling us that in the most definite terms for the past year. And as of April 8, it is pulling the plug. Sort of.

Hey, that’s 29 percent of the market share! Ancient, doddering old XP! Try and convince those who keep on muttering, “If it ain’t broke…”

Well, XP will be broke if we keep using it after April 8. That’s because there will no longer be patches and malware protection issued after that, and of course there will be no other support from the company for whatever may go wrong. Except for enterprise users—those with lots of “seats.” And then only for a little while longer.

So why don’t users accept the harsh reality, and just upgrade? “I will have to buy new programs because the ones I have been using on XP won’t work with the current Windows.” “I don’t want to buy a new computer, but this one won’t run the new Windows.” “I don’t want to have to learn a new operating system.”

For those who are so determined to hang onto XP, there are some major concerns. For instance, what about Microsoft Security Essentials, or MSE? Will Microsoft’s free anti-virus and –malware still be available?

It probably will be, until July 14, for enterprise users, but not necessarily for the rest of us.

However, there are several free alternatives that will work with XP. Lots of XP users already rely on these for their AV needs. They are avast! (which prefers a lower case a and likes its exclamation point), Avira, AVG (said to be one of the most downloaded free products), Bitdefender free edition, and Comodo.

Oddly enough, users of newer Windows versions might have their worries too, as they contemplate the demise of XP. Those who use their Windows 7 in XP Mode wonder whether that option will go away.

It won’t exactly be disabled, poof!, on April 8. But since patches and updates won’t be supplied for SP anymore, those running Win7 or Win8 will be exposing themselves to potential security risks.

XP Mode is available only in Win7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise mode, not Home.

If Microsoft is just washing its hands of XP on April 8, those with old XP installation media around should just be able to install it on any system that can run it, right? MS isn’t going to insist on making people register an abandoned OS, is it?

Oh yes it is. XP can still be installed, but it won’t work without registration. Remember, XP will still work. It just won’t be supported. If the computer is online, it can be vulnerable to attack.

Microsoft also says, “There are no current plans to remove existing Windows XP security updates from Windows Update after end of support,”

Nope, there are existing updates that haven’t been downloaded by all users who should or could download and use them, true enough. They will still be available after April 8. But no new ones will.

How long might it take to migrate a whole enterprise to Windows 7 or 8? Microsoft says maybe six months.

There isn’t a lot of time to play eeny-meeny about the choice between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Windows 9 is in the pipeline, but it won’t arrive until way too late for an XP user to wait and skip one migration.

Windows 7 is four years old now. Hard to believe, isn’t it! I like it fine. I have been able to find drivers for my oldest printer or multi-function, although one driver is a “generic.” All my major “work” applications run well on 7. Moving to 7 from XP or Vista isn’t a big deal.

But then there are the people and the organizations with tablet PCs, or plans to acquire them, and the enterprises with the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies and increasing demands for accommodating tablets. Windows 8.1 will be the best way to go, for them. Besides, it’s younger, so that end-of-support crisis won’t happen again for that much longer.

There are other possibilities, aren’t there! Walk away from Windows. How about an Apple operating system? Or Google Chrome-ish?

There may be organizations where the need for a local, desktop OS for every user is not a consideration, and where apps are served. But the great majority of current Windows users are likely to find leaving XP easiest to do if the destination is Windows 7 or 8.1. I see Windows 7 Professional is widely available for $80 to $100.

For that matter, you can still buy XP Pro for $39, from Capital PC. But where would that get you?

Let us know how you are facing the death of XP. drymar@gmail.com.